Any disaster brings the predators and scavengers out of the woodwork. These two-legged varmints can be highly dangerous, especially to those whose homes aren’t secure. What do I mean by “secure?” I mean that your home and property is protected by a combination of active and passive measures which will make sure that they can’t get in to steal or cause harm.

Home security is a complex issue; it becomes even more complex in the aftermath of a disaster. The normal rules that constrict illegal activity are much more easily ignored when society is in a shambles. This provides an open door for people to break the law, some of whom would never consider doing so in “normal” times.

Part of this comes from desperation. It has been fairly said that desperate people do desperate things. When people are hungry and in need, they forget about their personal security and take many risks that they otherwise would not take. The desire to eat or to feed one’s hungry children is a strong driving force, one that can cause people to take drastic action. As the disaster continues, more and more people become desperate, making the situation even more dangerous.

Conventional Security Measures Don’t Work

Conventional wisdom about home security doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in normal times and it’s much less likely to work in times of crisis. There’s a saying about those security measures that’s quite true, it goes, “Locks only keep honest people honest.”

Conventional wisdom says to keep criminals out of your home you should lock all your doors and windows. It recommends a deadbolt for your front door and screws in the track of the sliding glass patio doors. That’s supposed to keep people out… but will it?

As long as people are relatively honest and aren’t desperate, those locks will keep them out. But do you have any idea how weak a dead bolted door really is? A man can kick through that door with a booted foot, and he doesn’t really have to try. Windows are even weaker, considering they’re made of glass. So no matter how many locks you put on them or screws in the sliding door track, the only people they’ll keep out are those who don’t want to break your glass.

In the event of a crisis, you’re going to need much better security measures than those. If you depend on them, then you’d better be standing there with a gun in your hand.

So, What Security Measures Do Work?

In order to survive in a situation where lawlessness abounds, you’re going to have to use some new tactics for your security. Basically, you need a combination of passive and active security measures. The passive measures are there to slow down any attackers so that you can put your active measures to work. The combination of the two should keep you safe, even from an attack by a gang of angry armed looters.

Passive security measures never win a battle; that requires people who take up arms to defend themselves. So, ultimately, your security is dependent upon your family members or survival team members grabbing a gun and going after the bad guys.

Multi-Layered Defense

Historically, successful defensive security has always been built around multi-layered defense. Each layer of the passive security slows down the attackers, as well as directing them towards where you want them to go. This allows an opportunity to engage them on your terms, where you have the advantage and they have the disadvantage.

For a typical suburban home, you can only create three layers of defensive security. They are:

Your property perimeter

Your home’s perimeter walls

A fortified safe room for a final stand

Ideally, you want your property’s perimeter defenses to slow down any attackers and steer them to an ambush zone. That’s how you make it so that the fight is on your terms, giving you the advantage. If there is going to be a fight, it should happen between your property perimeter and your home’s perimeter wall. Once they get inside your home, you lose any advantage you have. At that point, you’re truly fighting for your life.

Please note that this is very different than what you can do in normal peacetime. Generally speaking, if an assailant hasn’t yet broken into your home, you can’t really claim that you were under imminent threat of harm. However, a gang of hungry attackers is not a normal situation and your security requires that you engage them before they get into your home.

The “Active” Part of Home Security

As I said, your passive defenses won’t stop your attackers; all it can do is slow them down. If things get bad enough that there’s a gang attacking your home, you’re going to have to start shooting. That means that you and your family better have a good idea of how to use your guns, so that you can use them effectively.

Understanding the best type of gun to use in a particular security situation, as well as how to use it, is an important part of your training. A hunting rifle isn’t an effective gun inside your home and a pistol isn’t an effective gun for shooting long distances. Each has its purpose.

Shooting in a tactical situation is much different than shooting at targets. It’s actually much harder. Part of learning how to provide active security for your home is learning how to move and shoot tactically, so that you know how to properly engage a group of assailants.

Alternative Weapons

Although firearms are the weapon of choice for home security, you should never limit yourself to only firearms. The liberals in our government are working overtime to find a way to take our 2nd Amendment rights away from us. Their goal is nothing short of disarming the public. If that happens, security goes out the window, because only the government and the bad guys will have guns; and we can’t trust either.

That doesn’t mean that you and I can’t do anything about our security. There are other weapons which are quite effective. The bow is one of history’s most effective weapons. If something would happen where I couldn’t use a gun, a bow would be my first choice to provide security to my home.

Dave Steen

About The Author: Dave is a 58 year old survivalist; father of three; with over 40 years of survival experience. He started young, learning survival the hard way, in the school of hard knocks. Now, after years of study, he's gray-haired and slightly overweight. That hasn't dimmed his interest in survival though. If anything, Dave has a greater commitment to survival than ever, so that he can protect his family. Click Here To Read More About Dave